In this first 2026 edition of our Partner in the Spotlight series, we are pleased to feature the Innovative Transport Solutions (ITS) Global, a South African transport engineering firm founded in 1997 that delivers innovative transport solutions across planning, design, engineering and intelligent transport systems.
With offices in Gauteng and the Western Cape, ITS Global serves public and private clients throughout South Africa, Africa and beyond. Its multidisciplinary team specialises in transport planning, road safety, data sciences and ITS deployment to support smarter, safer and more efficient mobility solutions.
In this interview, Jan Coetzee, Managing Director at ITS Global shares how the organisation is applying intelligent transport systems and practical road safety solutions to address real-world mobility challenges across Southern Africa, while leveraging the ERTICO Partnership to connect with European expertise, research opportunities and collaboration.
Could you briefly introduce your organisation and its mission in the context of intelligent transport and mobility?
When I founded Innovative Transport Solutions in 1997, I always had a vision to become involved in Intelligent Transport Systems. At that time, it was a very vague concept in South Africa. I was fortunate to have been involved in Traffic signal systems and Urban Traffic Control Systems up to that time. We became involved in the planning, design and implementation of the first Freeway Management System in South Africa in 2002, and we still are involved today with around 600 km freeways under camera surveillance. We also worked on projects to design and implement technology for Bus Rapid Transit systems in several cities. We are currently implementing the first real Intelligent Transport project in Namibia, to monitor distance-based tolling.
We use technology in transport to overcome the typical challenges faced in Southern Africa, namely limited funds, corruption, political leaders that do not always understand the value of long-term planning and maintenance. Our mission is to help, share knowledge, give advice and over time make it a better place.
What motivated your organisation to join the ERTICO Partnership, and which benefits or outcomes have proven most valuable since becoming a member?
The market for Intelligent Transport Systems in South Africa is small. We had the opportunity to develop expertise, and we are always looking for opportunities to use the knowledge and practical experience we gained.
We are located in Africa, where we know the environment and have worked in 17 African Countries. We view ERTICO as a vehicle to get access to further European knowledge, funding for projects in Africa and to partner with other similar companies that do work in Africa.
From your perspective, what differentiates the ERTICO Partnership within the intelligent transport systems ecosystem, and which aspects of the collaboration are you most looking forward to in the coming years?
In South Africa we had a similar organisation, called the Intelligent Transport Society of South Africa – but given the limited scope of work, the organisation was finally closed down during Covid. We have always had a link to German companies and had 18 young German engineers that worked for us over the years; thus Europe was a logical choice. Although we have a link to the USA through a partner firm, we look forward to the research opportunities pursued by the European union.
If you had to describe the ERTICO Partnership in one word or one short sentence, what would it be and why?
ERTICO is a partnership between public authorities and the private sector. The only way to deliver transport and mobility infrastructure, is through partnerships.
Your recent work includes activities like updating strategic transport planning models and supporting integrated public transport planning. How do you see transport planning tools and modelling evolving, and what new capabilities are you prioritising?
Our transport planning authorities learned expensive lessons over the last say 20 years, where large sums of money was spent inefficiently on deploying sophisticated Bus Rapid Transit systems in 9 cities in South Africa. Of these, there are probably 1 or two that are halfway functioning as planned. Our transport planning needs to go back to basics, and we have to develop transport solutions for our Africa based challenges. “Copy and paste’ of European or South American solutions is not the answer. Transport modelling is used as a planning tool in South Africa, but almost never maintained and used as envisaged, hence our view is to “sort out the basics” first. Our challenges lie in law enforcement, basic maintenance and protecting transport related infrastructure from theft and vandalism. The challenge lies to strike the right balance between the appropriate technology and getting the basics right.
Road design and safety is at the core of your work. What practical interventions have you found most effective in improving road safety outcomes?
We are at present quite involved in various road safety actions in South Africa. The Road authorities had several strategies over the last 25 years but had limited success in implementation. A fundamental issue is proper driver training, road worthiness of vehicles and with both of these we need effective law enforcement. South African drivers developed a culture of ignoring the rules of the road, further made worse by high levels of corruption, which inevitably leads to many crashes, thus we have of the highest crash rates in the World. We do everything possible from our side to promote the implementation of technology to assist with law enforcement, including Average Speed over Distance cameras, red light violation cameras at traffic signals and installing Tracking devices in public transport vehicles. Effective law enforcement will have the biggest practical impact to reduce crashes on our roads.
Curious about our European foothold and initiatives? Take a closer look at the ERTICO Partnership video and download our Partnership Brochure to learn more about the offers and benefits.